The Apple Phytosanitary Warning Network: Detection, Monitoring, Forecasts and Recommendations for Quebec Orchards

Description

The Apple Research and Expertise Network in Integrated Fruit Production, under the responsibility of the IRDA, is an information and rapid transfer tool allowing producers, advisers and stakeholders to find out about the pests present in the orchards, but also about the progress of research and on the best ways to manage crop pests. It is based on the integration of the three axes of innovation: research, development and transfer as well as on a network with the various stakeholders in the apple sector. The Réseau-pommier is also the nerve center of the Phytosanitary Warning Network (RAP) for the apple tree. In collaboration with its partners (advisors, scouts, researchers), it publishes every week during the season, press releases (warnings and/or information bulletins) which present a state of the situation in the various apple-growing regions, weather forecasts and risk forecasts for insects, mites and diseases and intervention strategies against pests, compatible with integrated fruit production (IFP).

It also counts:

• an experimental orchard (https://www.irda.qc.ca/fr/a-propos/installations/verger-experimental)
• a research laboratory (the integrated fruit production laboratory)
• and a website for apple growers (reseaupommier.irda.qc.ca).

Objective(s)

• Inform growers about active apple pests throughout the apple growing season through trapping and sampling activities for insects, mites and diseases.
• Monitor the arrival and spread of new apple pests in Quebec.
• Guide producers on the most appropriate intervention strategies to reduce the use of pesticides and their risks to health and the environment.